The White House was bombarded with questions on Monday about why it failed to go public with news that Vice President Dick Cheney shot a fellow quail hunter until the day after the accident. The victim, Harry Whittington, 78, took pellets in his cheek, neck and chest when Cheney fired his shotgun while aiming for a bird during a hunt in southern Texas on Saturday, and was in stable condition at a Corpus Christi hospital.Whittington was moved out of intensive care on Monday afternoon but Peter Banko, administrator of Christus Spohn Hospital, said he did not know when Whittington would be discharged."His condition continues to be stable ... it's not critical, it's not serious. He's in stable condition, doing extremely well," Banko said.The accident happened about 5:30 p.m. on a private ranch ... http://news.yahoo.com

A U.N. investigation has concluded that the United States committed acts amounting to torture at Guantanamo Bay, including force-feeding detainees and subjecting them to prolonged solitary confinement, according to a draft report obtained Monday.U.S. officials rejected the report, saying it was riddled with errors and treated statements from detainees' lawyers as fact.The report from five U.N. human rights experts also recommended the United States close Guantanamo Bay and revoke all special interrogation techniques authorized by the Department of Defense.It accused the United States of violating the detainees' rights to a fair trial, to freedom of religion and to health."The apparent attempts by the U.S. administration to reinterpret certain interrogation techniques as not reaching the threshold of torture in the framework of the struggle against terrorism are of utmost concern," the draft report said....http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/02/13/un.guantanamo.ap/index.html?section=cnn_world

An Ohio company has embedded silicon chips in two of its employees - the first known case in which US workers have been “tagged” electronically as a way of identifying them. CityWatcher.com, a private video surveillance company, said it was testing the technology as a way of controlling access to a room where it holds security video footage for government agencies and the police. Embedding slivers of silicon in workers is likely to add to the controversy over RFID technology, widely seen as one of the next big growth industries.RFID chips – inexpensive radio transmitters that give off a unique identifying signal – have been implanted in pets or attached to goods so they can be tracked in transit.“There are very serious privacy and civil liberty issues of having people permanently numbered,” said Liz McIntyre, who campaigns against the use of identification technology. ...http://news.ft.com/cms/s/ec414700-9bf4-11da-8baa-0000779e2340.html

A company in the United Arab Emirates is poised to take over significant operations at six American ports as part of a corporate sale, leaving a country with ties to the Sept. 11 hijackers with influence over a maritime industry considered vulnerable to terrorism. The Bush administration considers the UAE an important ally in the fight against terrorism since the suicide hijackings and is not objecting to Dubai Ports World’s purchase of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. The $6.8 billion sale is expected to be approved Monday. The British company is the fourth largest ports company in the world, and its sale would affect commercial U.S. port operations in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia. Critics of the proposed purchase said a port operator complicit in smuggling or terrorism could manipulate manifests and other records to frustrate Homeland Security’s already limited scrutiny of shipping containers and ...http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/nation/13852250.htm

As a congressional report blamed government-wide ineptitude for mishandling the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, a government accounting report called out misspending on hurricane efforts and the Justice Department announced widespread hurricane-related fraud. The 600-page report by a special Republican-dominated House inquiry into one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history concluded that "Katrina was a national failure, an abdication of the most solemn obligation to provide for the common welfare. At every level – individual, corporate, philanthropic, and governmental – we failed to meet the challenge that was Katrina." Excerpts from a draft of the report, which is due for release Wednesday, obtained by CBS News said "a blinding lack of situational awareness and disjointed decision making needlessly compounded and prolonged Katrina’s horror." ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/13/katrina/main1308008.shtml?CMP=OTC-RSSFeed&source=RSS&attr=U.S._1308008

Two federal air marshals are facing drug charges after allegedly agreeing to smuggle cocaine from a man who turned out to be a government witness, the U.S. attorney's office in Houston, Texas, announced Monday.Shawn Ray Nguyen, 38, and Burlie Sholar, 32, were arrested Thursday after allegedly receiving 15 kilograms of cocaine and $15,000 cash delivered to Nguyen's home and agreeing to take the drugs on a plane, prosecutors said in court papers.The U.S. attorney's office accused the two men of agreeing to use their official positions as federal air marshals to bypass airport security and smuggle the cocaine on board a flight from Houston to Las Vegas, Nevada, in exchange for the money.The two men made an initial appearance in federal court Monday afternoon and will have a detention hearing before Thursday morning, where bail will be discussed. ...http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/02/13/marshals.cocaine/index.html?section=cnn_us